The practices you observe in your email makes your email real or unreal. Both in a formal or informal world of email, there are some rules you need to adopt. If you give the best etiquette to your email, it gives credit to you as the writer and even to your email.

While you respond via email or write a fresh email, I know you must try to keep it in the best condition. It calls for a perfect application of the rules of email.

Right from the beginning of an email, especially a professional email, you need to use the perfect skill at each level. You must start with the formal email format. That is, the best arrangement of a good email.

In this article, I will give you tips on how to apply the best email rules that work perfectly. Let us start with a brief introduction to email best practices.

What is email etiquette?

It refers to those practices or rules guiding email writing. In other words, there are those principles which an email writer ought to adopt as he responds or sends his emails. These principles are geared towards creating and maintaining professionalism in your email.

Like I said in one of the paragraphs above, emails have principles. Not just principles, but ought principles.

Why you should adopt email best practices (Importance)

There are some reason you need to start making use of unique principles in your emails.

• Your email is your voice in your absence. The way you present it tells your readers how good you are.
• Apart from telling how good you are, it conveys the exact message you want to pass with better understanding. Once you observe the golden rules of email writing, nothing can hinder the recipient from understanding your ideas.
• You convey professional image in your email. Professionalism in an emails is one of the best things that would ever happen to you.
• You gain readers attention just by the way you project your email. Take it or leave it, you do not send emails for the fun of it, you send it for a reason, to get something. But it all starts from the attention of the recipient. Once the recipient begins to give attention to what you are saying over the email, you can easily get what you want.

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Email etiquette you need to use

Here are some best email practices you need to adopt in your workplace.

Choose good email name: Etiquette

It all starts from the email name. As a company or business owner, you do not need to use your personal email to to reach out to business personnel. It is always important you choose an email for your business. Not just anyhow email but a perfect email name.

However, sometimes you may need to make use of your personal email but in rare occasions.

Add a clear subject line: email etiquette

A subject line in an email enables a recipient to see exactly what an email is all about even without opening the email.

Whenever, a recipients gets an email in his inbox, the first thing he sees is the subject line. The subject line should relate what is in the email to him. Once an email subject line is clear and catchy, the possibility that a recipient opens it is high.

Let’s use instances here.

1. Example a: The Executive Board Meeting has been Cancelled.
2. Example b: Meeting Cancelled

Watch the two instances closely. Which one explains an email better? The first instance, right?

What about the second one? It’s just a phrase with little or no power to make a recipient open an email. The recipient may not really understand what the email is all about. Alright, “Meeting Cancelled” but which meeting was cancelled?

On the other hand, the first subject line informs him that the “Executive Board Meeting was Cancelled“. That is how an email subject line should be and it is one of the best practices of a professional email.

Use classic font and size in your email

The font, size and even color matter a lot in your professional email. Keep it standard. The best practice here is to use Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman in 10- or 12-point font and in black. If you must use bold or italics, try not to use them on more than one word.

In a case where you want to copy and paste a text, try using the clear formatting button to format the font, size and any other style in the email. Then you can set it in a professional way.

Make use of professional salutation

Make use a salutation that suits the relationship between you and the recipient. In other words, you need to include greeting which could be defined by the recipient or recipients as appropriate.

If you are writing to someone you know, you can make use of “Dear Clifford“. It is always important to include the recipient’s name.

If he likes to be addressed by his nickname, you can add the nickname in place of the real name.

In a situation where you are writing to a person you do not know, you use “To whom it may concern“. If you do not know the name, make use of “Dear sir” or “Dear Ma“.

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Have at least, an idea of the culture of your recipient

The observation of the culture of your recipient will help you adopt the best practice in your email. Some recipients, especially those in another country like to know the sender more before getting to the next step of relationship with him or her.

For instance, countries like China or Japan want to get to know you better before striking any business deal. While some countries like America and and Germany like to go straight to the point.

Non-idea of a recipient’s culture may land you in miscommunication and your email moves to the trash in just few seconds after the recipient sees it.

Use simple sentences and keep it short

Simple sentences are easier to understand at every level. In fact, simple sentences make your email readability score high. The higher it is, the easier it is for your recipients to read and understand.

More so, make your sentences short. Using short sentences is one of the best professional email practices. It also contribute to the readability score. Use full stop (.) where necessary. Also make use of other punctuation marks in the adequate places.

Be careful while using “Reply all”

Using “Reply all” simply means you want to send or forward an email to all your contacts. It careful of using it so that you do not send your important email to an unnecessary email address.

Proofread your Email

To ensure you have all the information in the email. You need to go through it again and again after writing it. To also ensure that you did not include irrelevant information, you need to go through it again.

At this stage, you need to check your spellings and grammar. Ensure each spelling is correct and that each grammar conveys a unique meaning.

Your professionalism is proven when you are able to figure out the compelling issues and knowing how to fix them.

Ignore emojis in your email

Emojis are used to show feelings at every level of a write up. But in the professional setting, it not a good email etiquette. It reduces the quality of your professional image.

Reply as soon as possible

It is a unique email practice to reply your emails within 24 hours. It shows that you are always on track and ready to communicate with your contacts.

At most, 48 hours but that’s a long time for a sender who needs urgent help to get feed back. While you reply your emails, try to express your sincere apology for taking so long to reply.

Be careful while using humor in your email

Yes, it is important to keep a professional tone. It is always soft. But be careful while trying to impress or make your readers smile.

Avoid some figure of speech like sarcasm and also try not to sound negative.

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Email etiquette: Wrap Up

Professional emails require the use of good email practices. Bad email practices will definitely land your email in bad structure. For you to achieve exactly what you want with your email, you do not need to wing it anyhow.

I believe you have seen the method you need to make use of in other to get to give your professional email the best shape.